Colour–magnitude diagram of the Galactic bulge

This diagram plots the brightnesses of more than 84 million stars in the central part of the Milky Way against their colours, measured from many VISTA images as part of the VVV survey. This is the first time that such a colour–magnitude diagram has been made for the entire Galactic bulge and creates the richest colour–magnitude diagram ever assembled. Brighter stars appear towards the top, fainter towards the bottom and redder stars to the right and bluer ones to the left. Most stars lie in the yellow regions, with fewer in the bluer parts of the diagram. More evolved red giant stars appear at the upper-right and fainter dwarfs at the bottom.